Texas school district takes the Rapid Responder plunge

Published 10 January 2007

Prepared Response’s flagship product continues to expand; Castleberry Independent School District puts a $100,000 DoE grant to work; system permits individual responders to instantly access predetermined safety plans, floor plans, utility shut-off locations, and more

The last time we heard from Seattle, Washington-based Prepared Response, the company announced that the San Marino, California-based Huntington Library center had purchased its flagship product Rapid Responder to help protect its massive rare books and manuscripts collections. The system permits individual responders to instantly access predetermined safety plans, floor plans, staging areas, hazardous materials, utility shut-off locations, and photos of a structure — great features that set the standard for this emerging field. 288 public safety and emergency agencies are already using the software, and now we can add one more: Texas’s Castleberry Independent School District.

The deal makes Castleberry the first school district in Texas to install the Rapid Responder crisis management system — funded from part of a $100,400 Emergency Response and Crisis Management grant from the Department of Education earlier this year. In coming months, Rapid Responder will be installed in all of the district’s elementary, middle, high school, and administration facilities. “The cutting-edge, all-hazards Rapid Responder system takes our emergency planning to a new level by improving coordination and response during a crisis,” said Superintendent Gary Jones. “It allows response agencies to develop crisis plans before an event occurs thus saving time during an emergency.” Indeed, in one incident of note the system was credited with quickly evacutaing a Washington state high school during a firearms emergency.

-read more in this company news release